Lost and Found
by euclidimogen
Summary: With The Charmed Ones officially retired and their legacy passed on to the next generation, it's left to their children to face the new face of evil. Even if no one seems to know who that is or where they'll be coming from. In the middle of these mysteries, Chris can't stop dreaming about an even more mysterious stranger...who doesn't want anything to do with them.
1. Chapter 1

"I found him," breathed Chris.

On the other end of the line, Wyatt barely paused his motions and cast a glance over his shoulder. Across the kitchen, their sister, Melinda, and her friends, Eve and Patra, were busily skimming different grimoires and spellbooks and jotting down notes and references. Mel looked up and met Wyatt's eyes, offering nothing but the same weary support and speculations Wyatt himself was plagued by.

In the midst of the nearest thing that their family had come to a magical crisis in likely over a decade, Chris wasn't off consulting an oracle or a seer, or tapping any of his other myriad resources and contacts-magical or otherwise. No, their baby brother was enchanted by a man he had seen in a dream-a vision, he said. Never mind that not a single one of their mother's children had inherited even a touch of the premonition power their family was known for. Never mind that even Wyatt's powers marshaled with their approximations of the Power of Three spells left by their mothers couldn't penetrate the fog or cloaking that kept Chris from scrying for said young man or using any locator spells successfully.

Trying to sound only curious, really the best he could offer on short notice, Wyatt asked the question he doubted he wanted to know the answer to. "Where? Does he know anything?"

There were several beats of silence over the phone and once again Wyatt looked up and met his sister's eyes. Finally Chris came back with a reply at once intriguing and frustrating.

"I don't know. I only caught a glimpse-he was boarding one of the trolleys, leaving campus. I'm gonna try and catch up to him. I -"

"Chris," Melinda began cautiously, but before she could continue, the call was ended and the line went dead.

Patra reached over and gave Melinda a comforting squeeze on her shoulder and Eve offered the same with a look of understanding. They all knew that it was hopeless to try to dissuade or distract Chris from a mission once he had decided it was his to see through. He was like a dog with a bone like that-or a whitelighter with a charge. Except Chris was certain-and the Elders agreed-that he had not been assigned a new charge and no one Up There anticipated any unassigned charges crossing paths with their family.

Yet the recurring dream and Aunt Phoebe's gut feeling. Not a premonition or a vision to corroborate the absolute lack of information Chris was working with, but an instinctive nudge nonetheless and it was all the validation Chris might have needed. To be fair, he usually didn't need any kind of validation at all. If it wasn't because it came at such a terrible time and therefore had all the markings of a trap to distract and divide their attention, Chris probably wouldn't have reached out for even that much support.

With a sigh, Wyatt absentmindedly dropped the phone his powers had still been holding suspended in the air while it was on speaker phone and returned his full attention to the potion he would soon be leaving to simmer on the stove. He had vacated his own position at the table digging into the research barely twenty minutes ago to add the powdered root of asphodel and it would need to dissolve completely before he could add the infusion of wormwood, otherwise they would be dealing with a very different potion. Although...the thought of forcing their targets into an enchanted sleep, might not be so bad an idea.

Reflexively, he lifted a hand palm up in the air and summoned his own copy of the Book of Shadows into his grasp. It grew and expanded quickly from the pocket sized notebook it had looked like when it first appeared until he was forced to lower it onto the island while he flipped to a spare page and filled in quickly the applications they could ring out of the draught. Especially if we can manage to add an inflammatory agent and make it combustible...


	2. Chapter 2

Meanwhile, on the other side of the Bay, Kurt had barely made it off the trolley before entire buckets of rain left him soaked from a suddenly dark and stormy sky. The wind tore at his clothes and jerked at the two bags he had in hand, forcing him to concentrate as much on holding his jacket closed in front of him as well as keeping the bags close to his body and trying to make sure they were sealed safe from the rain. Finding his way was fortunately the easy part of his afternoon, having walked the path from his new apartment to the most important local landmarks-the corner store, two of the nearest delis, and a bakery-several times to prevent getting lost in just such circumstances.

' _Great! The super must have-'_

Kurt nearly collapsed through his partially open door, fighting not to drop everything and strip immediately out of the wet clothes in spite of how chilled and decidedly uncomfortable he felt. He had half a mind to go charging right back down the stairs and demand Mr. Olovsky just WHY he had been snooping in his apartment again, and why he could never remember to lock after himself, but the kitchen was so much warmer and facing those stairs again so soon just wasn't worth it in the long run.

As soon as he crossed over into the open-air nook the landlord had called a "kitchenette," Kurt hefted his bags up onto the counter and released them. He also slipped the shoulder strap of his messenger bag over his head and let it slide gently down to the ground. He'd kicked the space heater on his way in and had jumpstarted the process of warming up his small space but not quickly enough for his blood. Standing just in front of the vents, he quickly and methodically divested himself of his clothes, down to his bare skin, and just stood there for a while soaking up the warmth. He stretched lazily and would have purred like a cat if he had been so inclined before moving away until the backs of his legs tapped against the bed.

Kurt collapsed without further ado, willing the heat to grow and spread a little faster, just a little faster, to no avail. Instead he pulled himself up the bed and flopped over onto his side, picking his phone up from where he had tossed it, along with his keys and wallet, when he first walked in. He passed the lock screen and clicked out of the Instragram feed that was waiting for him. He wanted to confirm the forecast, because he had double checked and triple checked before wearing what might have been his favorite jacket, his favorite article of anything, out and about when planning his day. Sure enough it should have stayed a crisp day, perhaps a few clouds but not a hint of rain or a storm. Kurt filed it away in the mental file he'd started of all the little quirks and unexplainable observations he had been making since coming to San Francisco. He set his phone down and continued to burrow under his sheets, more than ready to catch a nap and hopefully restore some of the energy it was so hard to hold onto nowadays.


	3. Chapter 3

Chris had fought to find and recapture the trail of the teen but was eventually forced to give up after boarding his third trolley. No one remembered or recognized his descriptions and other than that it was heading away from campus he didn't have an actual lead. His eyes, his everything really, had been focused on the young man, trying to sense something or sniff out a tangible characteristic he could lock onto and trace from a distance.

By the time Chris had given up, he was back on campus and resigned himself to crossing it the old fashioned way, slowly on foot. He passed the commons with barely a glance to confirm that it was empty, those who were unfortunate enough to face night classes were likely in their classrooms already or simply not planning on coming in tonight. His thoughts were losing that edge he'd picked up when he caught more than a glimpse of some potential out of the corner of his eye and falling back into the worn out, tired tracks he had already exhausted and beaten to death in the past few weeks.

It was so frustrating! As if he didn't have anything better to be doing! As if there weren't warlocks to haggle with and demons to shake down for a clearer picture of who, or what, they were going up against. But he couldn't deny the urgency of the vision, which showed nothing but regular scenes in the days of an average life. No demons, no spells, no magic at all actually. All of it wrapped up in a sense of urgency and finality that came across clearly to Chris whether he was awake or asleep. Shaking his head to clear it of the usual thoughts, he looked up and decided to cut across the parking garage instead of waste time walking around it.

Three minutes later and he was rounding the corner and stepping off of campus proper when he collided with someone and immediately shot his arms out, to catch himself and try to steady their balance. The first part failed but they both had reached out and managed to clasp onto each other, cementing their positions upright.

"Sorry," the other guy offered and Chris went to reassure him, looking down into a familiar yet completely strange pair of glasz eyes.

"No -"

Kurt gasped, audibly, and immediately let go where he had been gripping the stranger's arms. He backed away and cast his eyes around, hoping and cursing that no one seemed to be around. His hand had moved automatically into his half open bag and palmed the can of pepper spray he had gotten from his dad before moving but he was really weighing how useful it would actually be. Would it take this guy out of commission on its own, should he wait for a better opportunity, a more defensible location, hope to stumble across some convenient plywood or a random bat tossed aside to use as a weapon? Who knew what this guy would do, having already fixated on Kurt for whatever reason-he had only been in the damn city for a few weeks!-if Kurt attacked him but only enough to irritate him. Too many different scenes, conflating news stories with plotlines from shows, played through his mind's eye all in a second and Kurt held onto his pepper spray in a death grip.

"Uh-" Chris had caught onto the fact that the guy was obviously dealing with some stress and was trying to find a better way than his usual blunt and direct attack to gain information. He obviously didn't have any right to be prying into the young man's business, but he was also anxious to know if perhaps he had been attacked. If some demon or other monster was on his trail, Chris could help him: orb them away or call in reinforcements. Speaking of, "Are you alright? You look a bit...my sister is around the corner, and she's a nurse, she might be able to, umm, look you over, if you want?"

Kurt couldn't stop himself from raising a sardonic eyebrow and casting a withering look at his failure of a stalker. In spite of the situation and how untenable his own odds were in a potential altercation, he had expected to be given at least a little more credit than that! First, what kind of idiot agrees to walk off with the stranger who'd been in and out of their periphery suspiciously nearly everyday since they moved here, found an apartment and enrolled in classes, setting a schedule and general location. Second, letting him know there were accomplices wasn't going to reassure him, or ensure he went quietly. If anything, Kurt started to finger the pepper spray's safety lock more intently as he considered all his options. Third, even under the best of circumstances no one but an insane freak would offer a complete stranger a, what, medical check-up by their nurse sibling on sight, without even an introduction.

As if on cue or reading his mind, the guy tried a smile and offered a hand. "I'm Chris, by the way. I think I saw you earlier today, after my lab?"

Kurt stared at the hand for a long moment, barely registering the words he was blathering at him. This wasn't like To Catch a Predator or SVU, but it damn sure wasn't anything like the truth. He forced himself to unclench the fingers holding his shoulder strap and gingerly reached out, briefly gripping the hand being offered. He didn't know what to say to any of this, short of pointing a finger dramatically and declaring he was aware of the villainous intent behind it all. But this wasn't Scooby Doo, and he didn't get brownie points or suddenly neuter a threat just by knowing it existed or who was most likely responsible.

Finally he gave in and offered the best he could come up with, "Kurt. Yeah. I've seen you around a few times."

Chris's expression changed and Kurt was even more on his guard, wishing he felt comfortable putting more distance between them. What had he done wrong? Was this the part when a smart victim would play along, spinning a trap to turn the tables around? Suddenly it was like a light switched on and all of the babble just poured forth, filling the silence as he became more animated and gestured with his hands, tilting his head this way and that as he expressed a stream of consciousness and hoped it masked the subtle steps he took backing away.

"I mean, I saw you at the cafe, a few times, and once when I was leaving the bookstore, and then again when I went to the deli, I think you were buying a newspaper or something from the guy who sets up in the park around the corner from Prescott. Pretty distinctive brood-face you've got there. I didn't know anyone outside of Finn could look equally focused and hungry at the same time. I guess it comes with the neanderthal package, you know? Me-Tarzan; You-Jane. You've both got the build, although I swear puberty still hasn't let up for him and clearly you're about done growing in, everywhere. I mean, no. Not. Uh. Anyway, it's been - "

Just as Kurt would have turned and thrown caution, and outsmarting serial killers, to the wind and outright ran for it, he stumbled over a crack in the sidewalk for the second damn time and found himself being caught, lifted and righted by another pair of hands. These arms were bare and he brushed against someone either in the middle of a run or likely cooling down from one judging from the smell and the slight dampness of their chest and shoulders that he brushed against as he half turned, more grateful than ever to meet a stranger after dark.

Except, before he could open his mouth and say anything, his stalker was already jogging over and clapping the new guy on his shoulder.

"Wyatt, perfect timing. Meet Kurt," he motioned his head at Kurt, whose eyes widened almost comically if not for the soul crushing terror that was pushing his very tight mental and emotional control to keep it all in and bottled up.

Wyatt for his part barely let go of Kurt's shoulders before he reached out and, almost without thinking, patted his arm to release a burst of comfort and reassuring empathy with his power. None of what he was picking up from the little guy was good, no matter how pleasant or untroubled he seemed on the surface. Discretely he tried to catch Chris's eye but his brother was already moving on to describe how they had run into each other, literally, just a minute ago.

"Hey man," Wyatt tried to inject some more soothing vibes into his voice, recognizing but not having a good explanation for why, that his power wasn't doing anything to help Kurt. If anything, his empathy was telling him Kurt was growing even more concerned the longer he touched him. So Wyatt released Kurt and stepped away, bringing Chris with him. It seemed to help just a tiny bit-the feeling of panic dimmed a bit and started to subside, but didn't fade completely. It was actually kind of impressive since outside of his actual power, Wyatt couldn't tell any of this from any observations or tells Kurt was giving off. "I was just on my way to grab a drink, and meet up with a few friends, you're welcome to join us, if you like?"

He shot a look at Chris, who had finally caught on that something more was happening when his brother gently pulled him away, but neither seemed to be on the same wavelength, and until he had a better lock on just what Kurt might be or be able to do, didn't want to risk opening up a telepathic channel.

Kurt didn't know what this meant, maybe the new guy was vetoing the plan. Maybe he wasn't involved in "Chris's" plot at all. Maybe they were both really just friends who had happened upon a new face and being kind. As weird and unbelievable as that was, all on its own. Either way he didn't have a way to tell for sure and any opening seemed like good cause to hightail it. At the very least he used the space and excuse to pull out his phone, surreptitiously to check the time, but all the while dialing 9 and then 1. He hovered before pressing the last digit, wary of pocket dialing the emergency line and risking the two guys overhearing it until it was a confirmed emergency.

"I'm, uh, actually pretty beat. I think I'll take a raincheck and see you guys around, maybe. Yeah."

He turned and kept to a carefully moderated power walk, relying on years of facing down stony looks and imminent threats of slushies if he faltered to get him as far away as quickly as possible while drawing the least amount of suspicion.

Behind him, both brothers had turned on each other and demanded hotly, "What was that about?" the moment Kurt was judged to be safely out of hearing distance.

"I had it under control."

"He was terrified."

They spoke at the same time but Chris was brought up short, especially when Wyatt reached over and tapped his forearm, relaying the emotional state in short bursts he had picked up from Kurt.

"What? Why?"

"He must know something. I don't know-he didn't have any powers that I could sense, but then, outside of his emotions, I couldn't really sense much from him, period. Whatever or whoever is cloaking him is damn powerful and very effective. Maybe if we asked Parker or P.J. to scan him?"

"How? That was the closest I've gotten to him. And it wasn't by accident-he mentioned seeing me a few times around the area that is the closest scrying has been able to get. I don't know what broke or changed that I seem to run into him physically but he is still a null when I try to sense for him."

Wyatt's eyes lost focus for a minute and Chris waited a bit impatiently for him to tune back in.

"Melinda will meet us at the manor, we can try another spell, now that both of us have actually met him. Maybe we'll have a better chance. I agree with you, though. He definitely feels...significant. Important somehow."


End file.
